Suzuki Canada will not sell 2014 models

By Dave Halliday

EDMONTON, ALTA. – Suzuki Canada has confirmed to Canadian AutoWorld it will not be selling 2014 model year vehicles, instead ending sales with 2013 cars and SUVs.

Senior V-P Bill Porter said that despite automaker’s initial commitment to continue sales through to the end of the 2014 model year – a pledge made in late March following the news it would pull the plug on automotive operations in Canada – things have changed.

“2014 model year vehicles will not be produced for the Canadian market,” Porter said. “We are clearing out the 2013 model year vehicles right now.”

Although Suzuki head office in Japan was prepared to build 2014 Suzukis, the decision not to sell 2014 models came after discussions with the Canadian dealer network, Porter said.

While selling the 2013 vehicles is not a problem, “all felt the job of selling these 2014 model year vehicles would be very difficult,” he said.

Factors that would make the task tough include media stories about the end of Suzuki sales and staff at competing brand dealerships who would remind customers Suzuki was leaving the car business in Canada.

There is no word on what this reversal in plans means for the legal action Suzuki filed in Ontario Superior Court of Justice in May seeking dismissal of a claim its retailers brought under the National Automobile Dealer Arbitration Program (NADAP).

There were 48 Suzuki dealers identified in the filing.

Check out the next issue of Canadian AutoWorld for more on this exclusive story